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miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus)



 
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You will be the death of me! - what does that mean? | Future: I'm taking him to the zoo. vs I'm gong to take him to the zoo.
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miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus) #1 (permalink) Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:45 am   miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus)
 

Hello

May somebody tell me which of the two is correct?

Due to the traffic jam

1-She missed catching her usual bus
2-She failed to catch her usual bus

Thanks a lot.
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miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus) #2 (permalink) Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:57 am   miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus)
 

2 is correct, 1 is incorrect. To fail goes with an infinitive of the action you did not or could not do; to miss goes with a substantive noun, the thing you did not catch.
If you want to use the verb "to miss", it should be "she missed her usual bus", miss cannot go with a verb or -ing form. Unless it has a different meaning, as in "she missed talking to her father": that means she disliked the fact that she could no longer talk to her father like before.
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miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus) #3 (permalink) Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:27 am   miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus)
 

.
'Miss' does not necessarily take a 'substantive' noun (whatever you mean by that, Cerberus-- certainly not just concrete things and people!), of course; it often takes the -ing verb form as a noun: I miss dancing with her. I missed seeing that movie.
.
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miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus) #4 (permalink) Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:36 am   miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus)
 

Mister Micawber wrote:
.
'Miss' does not necessarily take a 'substantive' noun (whatever you mean by that, Cerberus-- certainly not just concrete things and people!), of course; it often takes the -ing verb form as a noun: I miss dancing with her. I missed seeing that movie.
.

I apologize if I oversimplified, I meant to respond to this simple sentence about missing the bus. That's why I said "unless...", of course it may be different when "to miss" does not mean roughly the same as "to fail".
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You will be the death of me! - what does that mean? | Future: I'm taking him to the zoo. vs I'm gong to take him to the zoo.
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